Grey Area
by Kordy
Summary: --COMPLETE-- Two strangers meet in a bar. Crossover with 'The West Wing'.
1. Point of Intersection

This is set now on both counts. Nothing belongs to me. This is gonna be a short, like 5 chapter thing. It's just been floating around in my head.  
  
Part 1: Point of Intersection  
  
She was the first person to walk into the room in over an hour. He looked up as she slammed into the bar and jumped onto the stool that spun loudly in her wake, tears streaming down her face. The young man behind the bar took one look at her and grabbed the nearest bottle, placing it in front of her, soon adding an empty glass.  
  
"Thanks," she said in a surprisingly chipper voice, considering her expression.  
  
The bartender nodded and wandered down to the other end of the bar.  
  
Toby motioned for a refill, which the bartender gave him without a word. He tipped his glass in thanks and slowly sipped his drink as the girl at the other end drank her second shot.  
  
He rubbed his forehead for a moment before sighing and grabbing his glass. He moved down to the stool next to her and took a seat.  
  
"I'm sorry," he said, pulling her out of her thoughts, "are you okay?"  
  
She looked over at him and smiled, almost taking his breath away. Despite her wet face and smeared makeup, her smile lit up the dim bar and made him stay in his seat. CJ's voice in his head shouted at him that he was drunk and it was past time for a graceful exit to his room to sleep it off.  
  
"Not really, no," she said, wiping her face with her arm, only serving to smear her makeup further.  
  
"Oh," Toby replied, kicking himself inside.  
  
Her smile faded as she refilled her shot glass and took another drink.  
  
"Hey, slow down there," Toby said, feeling a little hypocritical as his vision grew fuzzier by the minute.  
  
"I thought everything would be easier now, you know?" the girl began, gesturing wildly as she spoke. "I mean, hello, left the country, crisis diverted, time to get with the happy, but no, now we have to get into all the relationship issues, like I haven't dealt with them enough. I mean, okay, so I have some problems that maybe I haven't talked through, but relationships are about moving forward, not dwelling on the past, which is such a good thing, considering my past."  
  
She fell silent as Toby stared at her, not quite sure if she was finished.  
  
"Someone broke up with you because you couldn't get over the past?" he finally asked, when it was obvious she was finished.  
  
"Yeah," she replied with a sigh. "She said she was tired of competing with someone who she could never be."  
  
"Was she?" Toby asked, taking the inadvertent declaration of sexual preference in stride, mostly because it quieted the voice of CJ despite his inebriated state.  
  
"I don't know," the girl muttered, pushing the bottle away and laying her head on the bar.  
  
Toby also pushed his glass away, getting up and grasping the girl's shoulder until she sat up. He motioned toward a booth on the wall across the room and helped her off of her stool when she shrugged.  
  
They stumbled across the room and both collapsed into seats across from each other.  
  
"You don't have to talk to me. I mean, I'm not gonna spontaneously combust or anything. I'll be fine," said the girl, sitting back in her booth and readjusting her skirt, which had managed to ride halfway up her leg.  
  
Toby shrugged. "I was bored."  
  
The girl smiled at him for a moment.  
  
"I'm Willow," she said, putting her hand out across the table.  
  
"Toby," he replied, shaking it. 


	2. Outside Factors

This is set now on both counts (AU WW, obviously). Nothing belongs to me. This is gonna be a short, like 5 chapter thing. Thanks to my reviewers for the great feedback. The next part will be up next weekend.  
  
Part 2: Outside Factors  
  
Ten minutes later, Toby and Willow both had large glasses of water in front of them as they sat in a slightly uncomfortable silence.  
  
Willow ran her finger in a circle around the top of the glass, grinning as a low ringing sound vibrated off of it.  
  
"So," she said to Toby as he took a sip of his water and grimaced, "what brings you here?"  
  
"To this country or this bar?"  
  
"Um, both, I guess," she replied with a shrug.  
  
"Forced leave of absence."  
  
"Forced?" Willow asked, arching an eyebrow in curiosity.  
  
"Forced." Toby repeated, motioning to the bartender and pointing at a bowl of chips that sat on the bar.  
  
"What do you do?" Willow asked as the bartender brought the chips over and placed them on the table, silently retreating back to the bar.  
  
"I write complex, underrated speeches for a politician who tends to believe that he needs to tweak them two minutes before he delivers them," Toby said, dumping the contents of a sugar packet onto the table and drawing random designs with his finger.  
  
When he looked up, Willow was smiling at him.  
  
"What?"  
  
Willow shrugged. "I dunno. You do something you love for a living. I guess I just think you're kinda lucky. I mean, I don't have the best job, and a friend of mine worked her butt off for years and never got..." she trailed off, a cloud coming over her face.  
  
Toby eyed her as he popped a chip into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. Willow dropped her head back down on the bar, groaning.  
  
"I don't think I'm drunk enough for this," she mumbled, practically incoherent.  
  
"Yeah," replied Toby, downing half his glass of water.  
  
As he was trying to think of some way to continue the conversation without coming off as a complete idiot, they were both startled by a shrill ring filling the quiet bar. Toby patted his pockets until he found the source of the noise. Pulling out a cellphone, he answered the call as Willow watched with curiosity.  
  
"What?" he said gruffly, giving Willow a half smile when she shot him a nervous glance.  
  
He listened for a moment, his agitation growing as the person on the other end continued to speak. Finally, he sighed and looked toward the ceiling in exasperation.  
  
"No, I have not turned on a television. I have been without current events for the last three days, and frankly, CJ, I believe it may actually be speeding up my path to a nervous breakdown, not diverting it."  
  
He fell silent as the person on the other end spoke again. His eyes strayed from the ceiling to glance at the girl across from him, who seemed to have gone back to her state of self pity as she began to bang her head on her arms, while muttering to herself.  
  
"CJ, I'm fine." Toby said, reaching across to stop Willow in the midst of her head banging session. "I'll see you in two days, chipper and happy to work."  
  
Willow looked up as he fell silent again.  
  
Finally, he shrugged. "Well, I think happy and insane might be easier for you to spin than homicidal."  
  
With that, he hung up on the other person, whom Willow could hear protesting loudly until the phone beeped off.  
  
"Was that your boss?" Willow asked, gesturing to the phone as Toby put it back in his pocket.  
  
He laughed, "In her dreams."  
  
Glancing at his glass of water, Toby motioned the bartender over. "What do you say we get more drinks?"  
  
Willow shrugged. "Might as well. It was my original plan anyway." 


	3. Increasing Exponentially

This is set now on both counts (AU WW, obviously). Nothing belongs to me. Thanks again to my reviewers- you guys make me want to keep writing. The next part will be up next weekend.  
  
Part 3: Increasing Exponentially  
  
"Buffasong," Willow slurred into her bottle, before taking another drink.  
  
"I didn't catch that," replied Toby from his side of the table, where he was leaning back against the wall with his eyes closed.  
  
His legs were sprawled on the booth and he rested an elbow on the table, which was now next to him.  
  
"I said Buffy was wrong," Willow spoke up, succeeding in her attempts to enunciate clearly, despite her drunken state.  
  
"Okay," Toby said, finishing off his third beer, while Willow started on her fifth.  
  
"Buffy," Willow began to explain, her gestures growing wilder with every sip she took. "She said beer was bad. She said it doesn't solve anything." Willow frowned, inspecting her bottle for a moment. "Or something like that. Yeah." She ended with a sharp nod.  
  
"Your friend Buffy has obviously never had good beer," Toby said, drinking half his bottle at once.  
  
He began his attempts to get the bartender's attention, but the bar had started to fill up quickly, and he seemed to be occupied for at least the next ten minutes.  
  
"Dammit," Toby muttered, eyeing the last three bottles.  
  
"But this is different," Willow continued the conversation as if it had never faltered. "This was just a breakup. And I'm not gonna do anything stupid. I'm just gonna get drunk so that I don't have to think about how I'm gonna end up an old lady alone with her sixty cats. The neighborhood kids will bet each other a buck at a time to come near my house. I'll be the crazy witch who never goes outside."  
  
Willow let out a little giggle that Toby didn't even try to interpret.  
  
"Um," he began, trying to remember what had struck him as odd about what she had said. Well, odd for her.  
  
As he was thinking, she dropped her head back to the bar.  
  
"Oh!" he exclaimed when it came to him, startling her enough to make her sit back up again. "What do you mean 'just a breakup'?"  
  
"Well, you know, this time no one died."  
  
Toby frowned and watched her for a moment, surprised to see that she was serious.  
  
"Who died last time?"  
  
"A couple of people. I'm around a lot of death. It comes with the territory."  
  
Toby wasn't sure he wanted to know what territory she was referring to. He decided to take another route instead.  
  
"I'm around a lot of death too. Ever since I was young. You think you'll get used to it. I mean, you know that it's a horrible thought, but it's something you just assume. And then you never do. Get used to it, I mean."  
  
Willow looked like she couldn't decide to be surprised or concerned. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again quickly. Toby shrugged and gave her a half smile.  
  
"You're not gonna end up alone. Trust me. If you end up alone, then my faith in the human race is totally misplaced."  
  
Willow flashed him a brilliant smile and held her bottle up to him in salute. He tapped it with his bottle and they both drank, then falling into a comfortable silence.  
  
"Someone died the first time too," Willow said, continuing their conversation from earlier. "It's sort of a long story. Anyway, so my boyfriend left and when he came back, I was already with someone new."  
  
Toby was proud of himself for not spitting out his mouth-full of beer on the word 'boyfriend'. Suddenly, CJ's voice came back, louder than ever. Toby listened to it for a moment, then considered where he was and how much he'd had to drink, and finally concluded that CJ had no control over him here. A much smaller voice scoffed at that thought, but that one was even easier to ignore.  
  
"What about you?" Willow asked, dragging him out of his head.  
  
"No, I've never had a boyfriend."  
  
The redhead rolled her eyes and slapped him lightly on the arm. Toby tried to ignore the sparks that shot up his arm from her light touch.  
  
"I was married. It didn't work out."  
  
"Are you still in love with her?"  
  
Toby snorted. Then, after thinking about it for a moment, he shrugged.  
  
"It's complicated?" Willow asked, finishing her fifth beer, but not reaching for another.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"There's someone else?"  
  
"Possibly," Toby replied, suddenly uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was heading. He finished his beer and grabbed the other bottles. "What do you say we get out of here?"  
  
"And go where?"  
  
"I have a room upstairs."  
  
Willow looked at him for a moment, as if trying to debate it in her drunken mind. Finally she shrugged and followed him out of the bar. 


	4. Permutations

This is set now on both counts (AU WW, obviously). Nothing belongs to me. Thanks again to my reviewers- you guys make me want to keep writing. The last part will be up this weekend.  
  
Part 4: Permutations  
  
"Ooh! Minibar!" Willow said a bit too loudly for the late hour as they finally entered Toby's hotel room after struggling for a few minutes with the keycard.  
  
She looked at him so hopefully that he almost laughed out loud. He made her wait a few agonizing moments before giving his consent to raid the small refrigerator. As she went through the contents, narrating her search with the random "ug" or "yes!", Toby took his shoes off and settled into the only chair in the room, shutting his eyes for a moment when the room insisted on spinning.  
  
When he opened them again, Willow had lined up all the little bottles of alcohol on top of the fridge, and was attempting to open a can of cashews. Toby motioned for her to hand it to him, and, after an exaggerated eye-roll, she complied. He struggled for a moment before finally getting it open and handing it back to her.  
  
She popped a couple of cashews into her mouth and plopped down on the bed, causing it to squeak loudly, which sent her into a small fit of giggles.  
  
Toby smiled back and rubbed his eyes, grateful that the room was deciding to stay put, for the moment at least.  
  
"Do you think getting this drunk means that I really do love her?" Willow asked, popping another cashew into her mouth.  
  
"Maybe so," replied Toby.  
  
Willow studied him for a moment before patting the spot next to her.  
  
Toby pulled himself out of the chair and sat on the bed. He started fidgeting when Willow continued to stare at him.  
  
Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. "What?"  
  
The redhead grinned and offered him a cashew, which he popped into his mouth.  
  
"We should try an experiment," she said as he grabbed another cashew.  
  
Toby raised an eyebrow at her, munching on the nut and working hard to keep himself from lying down and going to sleep.  
  
"You should kiss me."  
  
Toby started coughing as he choked on his cashew.  
  
Willow just continued to look at him until he caught his breath.  
  
"I what?"  
  
"You heard me."  
  
Toby stared at her for a moment and tried to remember, in his hazy mind, why this was a bad idea. All he could see was her red hair and big green eyes, and suddenly it seemed like the best idea in the world. CJ began to protest, but he shut her up almost instantly.  
  
*A different country, no reporters for miles, lots of alcohol...*  
  
Internally, Toby shrugged. On the outside, he held a hand up to stroke her cheek. She shut her eyes and met him halfway. The kiss was sloppy and uncoordinated, but quickly grew deeper. Toby tried to keep his thoughts on the beautiful, warm woman in his arms, but the voice of CJ refused to stay quiet.  
  
As soon as he broke off the kiss, he knew that someone's voice was in Willow's head, telling her exactly the same things. This was just a substitute for what they wanted, and it wouldn't even tide them over until morning.  
  
"Lots of experiments fail," Willow said in a quiet voice, "sometimes the timing is wrong."  
  
"Sometimes the people are wrong," Toby replied, trying to keep his voice soft too.  
  
Willow gave him a wavery smile and fidgeted with the comforter.  
  
"You should talk to her," Toby said, eating another cashew.  
  
"I don't know what to say."  
  
"Tell her you love her. Tell her nothing is bigger than that. Let her know you want to try, and if it's meant to be, it will work itself out."  
  
Willow nodded, going over the words in her head. Finally, she spoke up. "Why didn't it work out with your wife?"  
  
"She said I was too sad."  
  
Willow's first reaction was to laugh out loud at the ridiculousness of that statement. Feeling that that wouldn't go over very well, she spoke instead.  
  
"The world is sad. Anyone too sad for the world doesn't stay in it long. You seem happy to me."  
  
"I wouldn't go that far."  
  
"I would," Willow replied, smiling at him.  
  
Toby couldn't help but smile in return.  
  
"It's better to know that you haven't found her yet."  
  
"Yeah," Toby replied, hesitantly.  
  
Willow gave him a knowing look, but didn't reply. Toby's smile returned briefly, as he grabbed the can of nuts and put it on the floor by the bed. He then laid down facing Willow. She hesitated for only a moment before turning her back to him and curling up against his chest to sleep.  
  
Five minutes later, they were both snoring softly.  
  
To Be Concluded... 


	5. Prime Numbers

This is set now on both counts (AU WW, obviously). Nothing belongs to me. Thanks to my readers and reviewers. You guys rock. You made my very first attempt at anything WW much more fun.  
  
Part 5: Prime Numbers  
  
Toby groaned as sunlight invaded his world. He rubbed his eyes and tried to figure out why his head felt like it was trying to separate itself from his body. He shifted around and opened one eye, grimacing as the world got painfully bright. Slowly adjusting to the pain of what he concluded must be a hangover, he peered out from the safe cocoon of the bed. He was greeted by a completely normal hotel room. His hotel room, though it looked considerably cleaner than it had since he had first stepped foot in it. His first thought was that someone had removed the 'Do Not Disturb' sign from his door. It took him a few minutes to realize that a hotel maid wouldn't have come in and cleaned around a sleeping guest.  
  
Toby shook his head, trying to clear it, and peered around the room again. The little fridge across the way was closed, no little bottles of alcohol littering the top of it. The only evidence that it had been opened was a can of cashews sitting next to it.  
  
Suddenly, his memory cleared.  
  
Toby closed his eyes briefly. The only thing keeping him from panicking was the fact that he appeared to be completely dressed, except for his shoes.  
  
He rolled over, fully expecting to see a sleeping redhead on the other side of the bed. What greeted him instead was a remade blanket and refluffed pillow, with a folded piece of paper sitting on it.  
  
Toby sat up, ignoring the pain, and took the paper from its place of rest. He unfolded it, realizing that it was hotel stationary which must have been hiding somewhere in the small desk by the fridge.  
  
Dear Toby:  
  
I'm sorry I couldn't stay to say goodbye, and maybe help with the hangover, but I had someone I needed to see. You were right. You're probably the best friend I've had in the last few months, and that means the world to me. I'm hoping your words coming from my mouth will help to at least begin to fix all the things that have gone wrong. I think we just needed a place to start. Maybe if we had met at another time, in another place, everything would have turned out differently. It doesn't matter now, anyway. I really believe that one day you'll have with your mysterious phone friend what I have with Kennedy.  
  
Your friend always, Willow  
  
P.S. I'm not tweaking a thing.  
  
Toby got over his initial eyebrow raise at the mention of his phone friend, and reread the last line of the letter. He was getting dangerously close to becoming emotional, which he attributed to the pain of his hangover. Smiling a bit, he reached into his pants and pulled out his cellphone. He turned it on and dialed a number by memory.  
  
"Hey, it's me. I'm coming home."  
  
THE END 


End file.
